Automatic bill handling system

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein are devices, systems, and methods for automatic handling of bank notes, gambling tickets, bills, or other types of paper notes. The disclosed devices, systems, and methods are directed to, or include, various robot arms, which may be articulated, that are configured to open a bill storage container, remove a bundle of bills, load the bundle on a bill conveying device, and load the bundle of bills in a bill storage case. The systems include one or more control devices to control the operations of the components that move the bill bundle.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/719,249, filed Dec. 18, 2019, which claims the benefit under 35U.S.C. § 119(a) of: Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-135153, filedon Jul. 23, 2019; Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-135154, filed onJul. 23, 2019; Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-135155, filed onJul. 23, 2019; Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-135156, filed onJul. 23, 2019; and Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-135157, filed onJul. 23, 2019; which are incorporated by reference as if fully disclosedherein.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to automatic bill handling devices andsystems for conveying and/or organizing bills, bank notes, printedgaming tickets, and the like. Such automatic bill handling devices mayinclude any of a box packing apparatus, a conveyance apparatus, androbot arms.

BACKGROUND

Some business establishments, such as casinos, have devices (such asgaming machines) that receive bank notes or other types of insertedprinted records, such as gaming tickets. Hereinafter, such bank notes orprinted records will be referred to as just “bills.” The bills may beinitially bundled or stacked inside devices, such as in secure boxes,for transport to another location for further operations, such as forsorting, counting, further packing, or other operations. Another suchlocation is a counting/sorting room at a casino, in which secured boxesfrom a gaming floor are opened and the bills may be sorted, counted, andrepackaged.

At the location for further operations, there is a need for safe andsecure handling of the bills, or bundles thereof. For example, incounting rooms of casinos or other establishments, there may be a higherrisk of theft or human error when processing a large number of bills,bank notes, or other printed or paper objects.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that is further described below in the DetailedDescription section. This summary is not intended to identify keyfeatures or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is itintended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimedsubject matter.

In a first embodiment, an automatic bill handling system is described.The automatic bill handling system may include: a robot arm configuredto extract bills from a bill storage container in which the bills arestored; and a bill conveying device configured to convey the billsextracted by the robot arm. The robot arm conveys the bills extractedfrom the bill storage container to the bill conveying device whilemaintaining a horizontal orientation of the bills extracted from thestorage container. The bill conveying device may include a bill storageunit into which bills extracted by the robot arm are to be inserted, anda rail configured to linearly slide the bill storage unit in a directionaway from the bill storage container. The bill conveying device conveysthe bills in the posture that has been determined when the robot armextracts the bills.

Another embodiment discloses an automatic bill handling system thatincludes: a box conveying device configured to convey a plurality ofbill storage containers in which bills are stored; a first robot armconfigured to unlock the bill storage containers using a key and openrespective lids of the bill storage containers; a second robot armconfigured to extract bills stored in the plurality of bill storagecontainers; a bill conveying device configured to convey the billsextracted by the second robot arm; a bill storage case configured toaccumulate the bills extracted from the plurality of box storagecontainers; and a third robot arm configured to grasp bills conveyed bythe bill conveying device and accumulate the bills in the bill storagecase. In further embodiments, the automatic bill handling system mayinclude a printer configured to print a respective sheet for identifyingthe bills of each bill storage container and a fourth robot armconfigured, for each of the conveying devices, to place the respectivesheet on the bills after being conveyed by the bill conveying device.The third robot arm is operable to grasp the bills with the respectivesheet and accumulate the bills with the respective sheet in the billstorage case.

A third embodiment discloses an automatic bill handling method thatincludes the operations of: unlocking a bill storage container using akey with a first robot arm; opening a lid of the unlocked bill storagecontainer with the first robot arm; extracting, using a second robotarm, bills stored in the bill storage container in a posture in whichthe lid of the bill storage container has been opened; conveying theextracted bills by a bill conveying device; grasping bills conveyed bythe bill conveying device with a third robot arm; and accumulating thebills in a bill storage case.

A fourth embodiment discloses a case storage mechanism for packing abill bundle in a bill storage case that includes: a mounting table onwhich the bill storage case can be mounted; a robot arm configured tograsp the bill bundle and pack the bill bundle into the bill storagecase; and a suction mechanism configured to detach a front wall from thebill storage case mounted on the mounting table and restore the frontwall to the bill storage case after the bill bundle has been packed intothe bill storage case.

A fifth embodiment discloses a robot hand configured on a robot arm. Therobot arm may have one or more articulated sections, and the robot handmay be a two-finger type. One finger may be a fixed finger, with anothera movable finger so that the robot hand can grasp an object, such asbill bundle, between the two fingers. In variant embodiments, eachfinger may be configured with one or more elongated or rod-shapedmembers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein likereference numerals designate like structural elements.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of an automatic bill handling system, accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the automatic bill handling system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of a first robot arm.

FIG. 4A shows a perspective view of a bill storage container containinga bill bundle.

FIG. 4B shows a plan view of a holding plate of a bill storagecontainer.

FIG. 4C shows side views of support bases of a holding plate of a billstorage container.

FIG. 5A shows a side view of a second robot arm.

FIG. 5B shows a perspective view of components of a robot hand.

FIG. 5C shows a side view of components of a robot hand.

FIG. 6A shows a perspective view of a robot hand and a bill storagecontainer.

FIG. 6B shows a perspective view of a robot hand inserted into a billstorage container.

FIG. 6C shows a side view of a robot hand inserted into a bill storagecontainer.

FIG. 7A shows a side view of a bill conveying device.

FIG. 7B shows a plan view of a bill conveying device.

FIG. 8A shows preliminary stages of a movement of a bill bundle from abill storage container to a bill conveying device by a robot hand.

FIG. 8B shows subsequent stages of a movement of a bill bundle from abill storage container to a bill conveying device by a robot hand.

FIG. 9 shows a plan view of a case storage mechanism and a third robotarm.

FIG. 10 shows a side view of a third robot arm.

FIG. 11 shows a side view of a robot hand of a third robot arm.

FIG. 12 shows a side view of a third robot arm interfacing with a casestorage mechanism.

FIG. 13A shows a perspective view of a bill storage case.

FIG. 13B shows a plan view of a bill storage case.

FIG. 13C shows a perspective view of a bill storage case with a frontwall removed.

FIG. 13D shows a perspective view of a front wall of a bill storagecase.

FIG. 13E shows a cutaway view of a lock pin of a front wall of a billstorage case.

FIG. 14 shows a first side view of a bill storage case mounted on casestorage mechanism.

FIG. 14 shows a first side view of a bill storage case mounted on a casestorage mechanism.

FIG. 15A shows a second side view of a bill storage case mounted on acase storage mechanism.

FIG. 15B shows a second side view of a bill storage case mounted on acase storage mechanism, with a slide bar extended.

FIG. 15C shows a second side view of a bill storage case mounted on acase storage mechanism, with a slide bar retracted.

FIGS. 16A-16K show side views of alternative configurations of fingersof a robot hand.

FIG. 17A shows a block diagram of a first control device.

FIGS. 17B-17D show data types stored by a first control device.

FIG. 18 shows a block diagram of a second control device.

FIG. 19 shows a block diagram of a third control device.

As a convenience, a partial list of reference numbers and labels used inthe drawings is provided here:

-   -   1 Automatic bill handling system.    -   10 Bill storage case.    -   11A . . . F Walls of the bill storage case.    -   12 Front wall unit (or “front wall portion”) of the bill storage        case.    -   50 Base of automatic bill handling system.    -   100 Box conveying device.    -   150 Box sensor.    -   151 Box image sensor.    -   160 Box reversing device.    -   200 First robot arm.    -   210 Key.    -   300 Second robot arm.    -   301 a/b Articulated sections of the second robot arm.    -   302 Robot hand.    -   310 Movable finger.    -   311 Base portion of the movable finger.    -   312 Intermediate portion of the movable finger.    -   313 Claw portion of the movable finger.    -   315 Reinforcing plate of the movable finger.    -   320 Fixed finger.    -   321 Base portion of the fixed finger.    -   322 Intermediate portion of the fixed finger.    -   323 Claw portion of the fixed finger.    -   324 Protruding portion of the fixed finger.    -   325 Reinforcing plate of the fixed finger.    -   330 Movable finger of the lifting mechanism.    -   331 Support plate finger of the lifting mechanism.    -   332 f Front lifting plate.    -   332 r Rear lifting plate.    -   333 f Front air cylinder mechanism.    -   333 r Rear air cylinder mechanism.    -   335 First air supply/exhaust port.    -   336 Second air supply/exhaust port.    -   340 Connecting portion.    -   350 Second robot arm imaging unit.    -   400 Bill storage container.    -   411 Holding plate of the bill storage container.    -   412 a/b Support bases of the bill storage container.    -   420 Front lid of the bill storage container.    -   500 Bill conveying device.    -   510 Storage unit of the bill conveying device.    -   511 Bottom surface of the storage unit.    -   511X First groove portion of the storage unit.    -   511Y Second groove portion of the storage unit.    -   512 a . . . d Wall portions of the storage unit.    -   520 Slide portion of the storage unit.    -   530 Arranging mechanism of the storage unit.    -   600 Third robot arm.    -   610 Alternate robot hand of the third robot arm.    -   621 Movable finger of the third robot arm.    -   622 Fixed finger of the third robot arm.    -   623 Movable finger reciprocating mechanism of the third robot        arm.    -   624 First lifting plate of the third robot arm.    -   625 Second lifting plate of the third robot arm.    -   626 Connection portion of the third robot arm.    -   650 Imaging device for the third robot arm.    -   700 Fourth robot arm.    -   710 Printer.    -   800 Case storage mechanism.    -   805 Wall attaching/detaching device.    -   810 Mounting table.    -   811 Circular table of the turntable.    -   812 Main body of the mounting table.    -   820 Suction mechanism.    -   821 Housing of the suction mechanism.    -   822 Guide rail of the case storage mechanism.    -   823 Bellows chucks.    -   824 Support plate for the suction mechanism.    -   824 a Contact plate of support plate for suction mechanism.    -   825 Slide bar of the suction mechanism.    -   850 Turntable of the case storage mechanism.    -   860 Rotation power mechanism for the turntable of case storage        mechanism.    -   865 Shaft of rotation power mechanism.    -   900 First control device.    -   910 CPU of the first control device.    -   920 Memory of the first control device.    -   921 Container type data.    -   922 Individual container data.    -   923 Key data.    -   930 Display unit.    -   940 Operation unit of the first control device.    -   960 Communication interface of the first control device.    -   970 Speaker of the first control device.    -   1000 Second control device.    -   1100 Third control device.    -   Bf Front handle of the bill storage case.    -   Br Rear handle of the bill storage case.    -   Dy Front direction of the fixed finger of the second robot hand.    -   Cv Notch in fixed finger of the second robot arm.    -   Ll Left lock mechanism of the bill storage case.    -   Lr Right lock mechanism of the bill storage case.    -   MT Bill bundle.    -   OP Opening of the top surface of bill storage case.    -   RA Robot arm section.    -   Rl Left side receiving portion.    -   Rr Right side receiving portion.    -   Rs Semicircular notch of the holding plate of the bill storage        container.    -   Rt space or slit between support bases of bill storage        container.    -   SA Support arm of the second robot hand 302.    -   Sl Right lock pin of bill storage case.    -   Sr Rubber sheet material of fingers, or left lock pin of bill        storage case.    -   Tm Tip portion of protruding portion of movable finger.    -   Ts Tip portion of protruding portion of fixed finger.

The use of cross-hatching or shading in the accompanying figures isgenerally provided to clarify the boundaries between adjacent elementsand also to facilitate legibility of the figures. Accordingly, neitherthe presence nor the absence of cross-hatching or shading conveys orindicates any preference or requirement for particular materials,material properties, element proportions, element dimensions,commonalities of similarly illustrated elements, or any othercharacteristic, attribute, or property for any element illustrated inthe accompanying figures.

Additionally, it should be understood that the proportions anddimensions (either relative or absolute) of the various features,components, and elements (and collections and groupings thereof) and theboundaries, separations, and positional relationships presentedtherebetween, are provided in the accompanying figures merely tofacilitate an understanding of the various embodiments described hereinand, accordingly, may not necessarily be presented or illustrated toscale, and are not intended to indicate any preference or requirementfor an illustrated embodiment to the exclusion of embodiments describedwith reference thereto.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to representative embodimentsillustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be understood thatthe following descriptions are not intended to limit the embodiments toone preferred embodiment. To the contrary, it is intended to coveralternatives, modifications, and equivalents as can be included withinthe spirit and scope of the described embodiments as defined by theappended claims.

The embodiments described herein are directed to automatic bill handlingsystems and their associated components and methods of use. Someestablishments or businesses, such as (but not limited to) casinos,receive and store multiple bank notes, bills, printed gaming tickets(which may have encoded value encoded in the printing), printeddocuments, or other paper notes. As stated, these and other types ofpaper (or other material) notes will be referred to herein as “bills.”Such bills may be received and stored at various machines or devices inthe establishments; as an example, a casino may operate multiple slotmachines or betting tables which receive and store bills. The bills maybe received and stored in a secure or locked bill storage container,which may be locked before removal and movement to another location foremptying, sorting, or other operations. The bills in the bill storagecontainer may be organized into a bundle.

The embodiments described herein are directed to devices, systems, andmethods for automatic handling of the bill storage container. Such anautomatic bill handling system may include multiple robot arms. Ingeneral, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , there are four robotarms. Generally, in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 , a bill storagecontainer is placed onto a box conveying device operable to move, andreposition if need be, the bill storage container to be positioned sothat a first robot arm can unlock and/or open it. The first robot armmay unlock the bill storage container, and possibly open it. A secondrobot arm may be equipped with a robot hand to be operable to remove abundle of bills from the bill storage container. The second robot armmay place the bill bundle on a bill conveying device, which moves thebill bundle in proximity to a third and a fourth robot arm.

The fourth robot arm may receive a printed piece of paper from aprinter, and place it on the bill bundle. The third robot arm may beconfigured to take the bill bundle from the bill conveying device andplace it in a bill storage case mounted on a case storage mechanism. Thebill storage case may be configured to receive multiple bill bundles.

The case storage mechanism may be configured on a turntable. The casestorage mechanism may include a mechanism for temporarily removing afront end of the bill storage case while the third robot arm places oneor more bill bundles into the bill storage case.

Such automatic bill handling systems may include one or more controldevices. Such control devices may control operations of the boxconveying device, the robot arms, the box conveying device, the casestorage mechanism, and/or other components.

These and other embodiments are discussed below with reference to FIGS.1-19 . However, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate thatthe detailed description given herein with respect to these Figures isfor explanatory purposes only and should not be construed as limiting.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show respectively a plan and a side view of an exemplaryautomatic bill handling system 1. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , theautomatic bill handling system 1 includes, among other components to bedescribed, a box conveying device 100, a box sensor 150, a box reversingdevice 160, a first robot arm 200, a second robot arm 300, a billconveying device 500, a printer 710, a fourth robot arm 700, a thirdrobot arm 600, imaging devices 151 and 650, a case storage mechanism800, and a first control device 900 for controlling one or more of thesecomponents. In the present embodiment, these devices are mounted on abase 50. More specifically, the first control device 900 may be housedunder the base 50; other control or operation units, such as operationunit 940 and a display unit 930, may be disposed on the base 50.Additionally and/or alternatively, different control devices other thanfirst control device 900, such as control devices 1000 and 1100described below, may be included.

The box conveying device 100 is disposed in front of the base 50. Thefirst robot arm 200 is disposed on the front left side of the boxconveying device 100. The second robot arm 300 is disposed on the rearright side of the box conveying device 100. The fourth robot arm 700 isdisposed behind the first robot arm 200, and the printer 710 is disposedbehind the fourth robot arm 700. The third robot arm 600 is disposedbehind the second robot arm 300, and the case storage unit is disposedbehind the third robot arm 600. The bill conveying device 500 may bepositioned in an area extending between the first robot arm 200 and thesecond robot arm 300 to the fourth robot arm 700 and the third robot arm600.

Functions, configurations, and operations of various components andparts of the automatic bill handling system 1 will now be described.Further descriptions of these and other components may also be describedfurther in reference to other figures. In the following description, forthe sake of explanation, a direction from the third robot arm 600 towardthe second robot arm 300 is referred to as a front side direction; adirection from the second robot arm 300 toward the third robot arm 600is referred to as a rear side direction; a direction from the firstrobot arm 200 toward the second robot arm 300 is referred to as a rightside direction; a direction from the second robot arm 300 toward thefirst robot arm 200 is referred to as a left side direction; thevertical upward direction is referred to as an upper side direction; thevertical downward direction is referred to as a lower side direction.The upper side in FIG. 1 is referred to as the front side of eachdevice; the lower side in FIG. 1 is referred to as the rear side of eachdevice; the right side in FIG. 1 is referred to as the right side ofeach device; the left side in FIG. 1 is referred to as the left side ofeach device; the front direction of the paper in FIG. 1 is referred toas the upper side of each device; the back direction of the paper inFIG. 1 is referred to as the lower side of each device.

The configuration of the box conveying device 100 will now be described.A bill storage container 400 as shown in FIG. 4A is placed on an endportion (front side in FIG. 1 ) of the box conveying device 100, such asby an employee of a casino. The bill storage container 400 may containbills stacked into a bundle. The box conveying device 100 conveys thebill storage container 400 to the vicinity of the first robot arm 200.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , the bill storage container400 has an integrated circuit (IC) tag (or RFID tag, or the like) forstoring information that is embedded in a place where a key hole isdisposed in the bill storage container 400 or a place on the backsurface of the front lid in the bill storage container 400. For example,the IC tag may store various types of information relating to the billstorage container 400; examples of the information relating to the billstorage container 400 include a type of the bill storage container 400,identification information, the gaming machine from which it was taken,or other information. Additionally and/or alternatively to the IC tag,the box sensor 150 may obtain various information about the bill storagecontainer 400 using various technologies. For example, the box sensor150 may include an IC sensor, an infrared sensor, a bar code sensor, aproximity sensor, or the like.

The type, or other information, regarding the bill storage container 400may be obtained by imaging the bill storage container 400 with a boximage sensor 151 (such as a camera or other optical imaging device)positioned in the vicinity of the box conveying device 100. In addition,the box sensor 150 may use optical sensor(s), RFID, or othercommunication technologies to read out various types of informationregarding the bill storage container 400. In the present embodiment, thefirst control device 900 (such as is described in relation to FIG. 17A)may obtain the type, the size, the position of a key hole, the angle ofthe key hole, and other information with respect to the bill storagecontainer 400 using data from the box sensor 150. Additional and/oralternative information may also be obtained by the first control device900 from an imaging unit 350 attached to the second robot arm 300.

When the location or direction of the key hole of the bill storagecontainer 400 is not on a side where the first robot arm 200 isdisposed, the first control device 900 may cause the box reversingdevice 160 to change the direction or orientation of the bill storagecontainer 400.

As shown in FIGS. 4A-4C, the bill storage container 400 includes ahousing 410, a front lid 420, a holding plate 411, and support bases 412a and 412 b. As shown in FIG. 4A, the housing 410 may be a rectangularparallelepiped box having a front lid 420 that can be opened. The depthdimension of the housing 410 is sufficiently longer than the length ofthe fixed finger 320 of the second robot arm 300 described below. Thefront lid 420 is a plate member having a substantially rectangularshape, and is rotatably supported on the upper side of the opening edgeof the housing 410 via an opening/closing mechanism, such as a hinge.The holding plate 411 is a member for holding a bill bundle MT incooperation with the support bases 412 a and 412 b, and is disposed soas to be movable above the center in the height direction of the housing410. A semicircular notch Rs is provided at the center of the front sideof the holding plate 411. The support bases 412 a and 412 b may be leftand right separation type support members that hold the bill bundle MTin cooperation with the holding plate 411, and are fixed to the left andright of the lower side of the housing 410. A space or gap Rt is formedbetween the support bases 412 a and 412 b. The slit or space Rt extendsin the depth direction. In the bill storage container 400, the holdingplate 411 is pushed downward by an urging member (a helical spring orthe like) placed on the upper side. The bill bundle MT accommodated inthe bill storage container 400 is pressed toward the support bases 412 aand 412 b by the holding plate 411. As shown in FIG. 4A, the billstorage container 400 stores the bill bundle MT between the supportbases 412 a and 412 b and the holding plate 411 such that thelongitudinal direction of the bill is along the depth direction.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3 , the first robot arm 200includes a key 210 for unlocking a front lid 420 of the bill storagecontainer 400. For example, the first robot arm 200 inserts the key 210into the key hole of the bill storage container 400 by moving theposition of the key 210 back and forth, left and right, and/or up anddown, or rotating the key 210 based on information on the position andangle of the key hole from the first control device 900. The first robotarm 200 unlocks the bill storage container 400 by rotating the key 210based on a command from the first control device 900, and opens thefront lid 420. In some embodiments, the first control device 900 mayalso use image data obtained from the imaging unit 350 of the secondrobot arm 300 so that the key 210 is inserted into the key hole byaccurately specifying the up, down, left, and right positions of the keyhole and the rotation angle of the keyhole.

The first robot arm 200, as well as the other robot arms to bedescribed, may be mounted on a section that rotates with respect to thebase 50 of the automatic bill handling system 1.

FIGS. 5A-5C show details and components of the second robot arm 300. Thesecond robot arm 300 includes two articulated sections 301 a and 301 b.The second robot arm 300 also includes a robot hand 302 attached to theend of the articulated robot section 301 b and configured for graspingand extracting the bill bundle MT in the bill storage container 400, andmay be operated by the first control device 900. Details of theoperations of the second robot arm will be described below.

The robot hand 302 is a two-finger type robot hand as shown in FIGS.5B-5C. The robot hand 302 includes a movable finger 310, a fixed finger320, a movable finger lifting mechanism 330, a connecting portion 340,and a second robot arm imaging unit 350.

The movable finger 310 is formed with a base portion 311, anintermediate portion 312, and a claw portion 313. The base portion 311is a thick plate portion having a substantially rectangular shape. Theintermediate portion 312 is a substantially trapezoidal thick plateportion, and extends from the tip of the base portion 311 toward thefront Dy. Note that the width of the intermediate portion 312 narrowstoward the front Dy. The claw portion 313 is an elongated substantiallyrectangular thick plate portion, and extends from the tip of theintermediate portion 312 toward the front Dy. In the illustratedembodiment, the tip portion of the claw portion 313 has a shapeprotruding downward as shown in FIG. 7 . In the movable finger 310, theupper surface of the movable finger 310 is inclined downward from thebase end of the intermediate portion 312 toward the tip of the clawportion 313 in a region from the base end of the intermediate portion312 to the tip of the claw portion 313. A rubber sheet Sr is attached tothe lower surface of the claw portion 313. The movable finger 310 isfixed to a front lifting plate 332 f (as described later) of the movablefinger lifting mechanism 330 on the base end side of the base portion311. Further, a reinforcing plate 315 is provided to enhance thecoupling strength between the movable finger 310 and the front liftingplate 332 f. The reinforcing plate 315 is fixed to both the movablefinger 310 and the front lifting plate 332 f.

As shown in FIGS. 5B-5C, the fixed finger 320 is formed with a baseportion 321, an intermediate portion 322, a claw portion 323, and aprotruding portion 324. The base portion 321 is a thick plate portionhaving a substantially rectangular shape. The intermediate portion 322is a substantially trapezoidal thick plate portion, and extends from thetip of the base portion 321 toward the front Dy. Note that the width ofthe intermediate portion 322 narrows toward the front Dy. The clawportion 323 is an elongated substantially rectangular thick plateportion, and extends from the center in the width direction of the sidesurface on the tip side of the intermediate portion 322 toward the frontDy. A notch Cv is provided on the upper side of the claw portion 323. Asa result, the tip portion of the claw portion 323 has a shape protrudingupward. Further, in the fixed finger 320, the lower surface of the fixedfinger is inclined upward from the intermediate portion 322 toward thetip in a region from the intermediate portion 322 to the tip of the clawportion 323. The protruding portion 324 is a substantially rectangularthick plate portion having the same width as that of the claw portion323, and extends from the tip of the claw portion 323 toward the frontDy. The tip portion Ts of the protruding portion 324 is located in frontof the tip portion Tm of the claw portion 313 of the movable finger 310.In other words, the protruding portion 324 of the fixed finger 320protrudes forward in a direction of Dy compared with a portion of theclaw portion 313 of the movable finger 310. Further, a rubber sheet Sras a slip prevention material is attached to the protruding portion 324.A portion to which the rubber sheet Sr has been attached does not face aregion where the rubber sheet Sr of the movable finger 310 has beenattached. The fixed finger 320 is fixed to a support plate 331(described later) of the movable finger lifting mechanism 330. Further,a pair of reinforcing plates 325 are disposed on the left and rightsides in order to enhance the bonding strength between the fixed finger320 and the support plate 331. The reinforcing plates 325 are fixed toboth the fixed finger 320 and the support plate 331. As shown in FIGS.6A, 6B, and 7 , the fixed finger 320 faces the movable finger 310 in thelifting direction of the movable finger 310.

The movable finger lifting mechanism 330 is a two-stage stroke typelifting mechanism, and includes a support plate 331, a front liftingplate 332 f, a rear lifting plate 332 r, a front air cylinder mechanism333 f, and a rear air cylinder mechanism 333 r. The support plate 331supports the rear air cylinder mechanism 333 r. The rear air cylindermechanism 333 r operates in a double-acting manner, and is a drivingsource for raising and lowering the rear lifting plate 332 r. The rearair cylinder mechanism 333 r is attached to the support plate 331 asdescribed above. A front air cylinder mechanism 333 f is attached to therear lifting plate 332 r. The front air cylinder mechanism 333 foperates in a double-acting manner and is a driving source for raisingand lowering the front lifting plate 332 f. As described above, themovable finger 310 is attached to the front lifting plate 332 f. Inother words, the rear air cylinder mechanism 333 r raises and/or lowersthe rear lifting plate 332 r, thereby raising and/or lowering the frontair cylinder mechanism 333 f, the front lifting plate 332 f, and themovable finger 310. In contrast, the front air cylinder mechanism 333 fraises and/or lowers the front lifting plate 332 f, thereby raisingand/or lowering the movable finger 310. Also, the air supply/exhaustports 335 and 336 are provided in the front air cylinder mechanism 333 fand the rear air cylinder mechanism 333 r, respectively. The airsupply/exhaust ports 335 and 336 are each connected to an airsupply/exhaust pipe (not shown).

The connecting portion 340 is a portion for connecting the robot hand302 to the second robot arm 300, and is, for example, a flange or thelike.

The second robot arm imaging unit 350 may be, for example, a camera suchas a CMOS, CCD, or other type of camera, and is fixed to the right sideof the movable finger lifting mechanism 330 with a support arm SAextending from a support plate 331 of the movable finger liftingmechanism 330. The camera may capture either single or multiple images,or may capture video sequences. The second robot arm imaging unit 350may transmit, such as to first control device 900, electronic datarelated to the captured images.

Variations of configurations for the number and positions of the fixedand movable fingers will be described below in relation to FIGS.16A-16K.

The second robot arm 300 is operable to extract the bill bundle MT inthe bill storage container 400, as may be operated by the first controldevice 900, as will now be described. First, the first control device900 controls the operation of the second robot arm 300 to move the robothand 302 to a prescribed position and move it in a prescribed direction(see FIG. 6A). In the illustrated embodiment, the prescribed position isa position on the front side of the bill storage container 400, and theprescribed direction is a direction in which the second robot armimaging unit 350 can image the front side of the bill storage container400.

Next, as illustrated in the sequence of FIGS. 6A-6C, the first controldevice 900 controls the second robot arm 300 and the robot hand 302 toraise the movable finger 310 to the highest position, and then insertsthe tip portion of the fixed finger 320 into the slit Rt of the supportbases 412 a and 412 b (see FIGS. 4A-4C). At this time, the movablefinger 310 is positioned above the notch Rs of the holding plate 411,and the fixed finger 320 is positioned directly below the bill bundleMT, as shown in FIG. 6B. Further, at this time, the fixed finger 320 isinserted to an intermediate position of the slit Rt, whereas the movablefinger 310 is inserted only to a position above the notch Rs of theholding plate 411, as shown in FIG. 6B. That is, the fixed finger 320contacts the lower surface of the bill bundle MT over a length of abouthalf of the bill bundle MT in the longitudinal direction, whereas themovable finger 310 contacts only the upper surface of the bill bundle MTon the near side of the bill bundle MT, as shown in FIG. 6C.

Subsequently, the first control device 900 causes the movable finger 310to move downward to grasp the bill bundle MT together with the fixedfinger 320. The first control device 900 controls the operation of thesecond robot arm 300 to retract the robot hand 302, thereby extractingthe bill bundle MT from the bill storage container 400.

In the present embodiment, as will be described below, the first controldevice 900 controls the operation of the second robot arm 300 to deliverthe bill bundle MT to the bill conveying device 500 without changing theorientation of the robot hand 302. This allows the second robot arm 300to quickly shift to the process of imaging the key hole for the nextbill storage container 400 placed on the box conveying device 100 andthe process of taking out bills.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , the automatic bill handling system 1includes the bill conveying device 500 positioned at a substantiallycentral portion of the base 50, and configured to move the bill bundleMT received from the second robot arm 300 to the vicinity of the thirdrobot arm 600 while maintaining the state of the bill MT. Referring toFIGS. 7A-7B, the bill conveying device 500 includes a storage unit 510for storing bills, a slide mechanism 520 for moving the storage unit 510from a side of the first robot arm 200 to a side of the third robot arm600, and an arranging mechanism 530 for arranging bills.

The storage unit 510 includes a bottom surface 511 on which bills are tobe placed, and wall portions 512 a, 512 b, 512 c, and 512 d forsurrounding four corners of the bills so that the bills do not protrudefrom the storage unit 510. The width and the positional relationship ofthe wall portions 512 a-d may be easily adjustable to accommodate aplurality of bills from a plurality of countries. For example, for arelatively large-sized bill, a gap between the bill and the wallportions 512 a-d is small, whereas for a relatively small-sized bill, agap between the bill and the wall portions 512 a-d is large. The size ofthe space surrounded by the wall portions 512 a-d may be set to beslightly larger than the inner dimension of the bill storage container.

As will be described later, a groove portion 511X for pulling out thefixed finger 320 of the robot hand 302 of the second robot arm 300toward the rear side is formed on the bottom surface 511 in thefront-rear direction. A groove 511Y into which the fixed finger 120 ofthe third robot arm 600 is to enter is formed on the bottom surface 511in the left-right direction.

In the embodiment shown, the storage unit 510 is opened upward to form agap into which the second robot arm 300 can insert the bill bundle MT. Aspace between the two wall portions 512 c and 512 d on the back side isprovided to allow the second robot arm 300 to lower the bill bundle MTinto the storage unit 510. Also, another gap is provided between the twowall portions 512 d and 512 b through which the third robot arm 600 maypass and extract the bill bundle MT. However, the shape of the storageunit 510 may be any shape with which the bill bundle MT can be quicklyinserted, and it should not be limited to such a form. For example, aconfiguration in which a gap is formed only on one side surface and thefirst robot arm 200 and the second robot arm 300 share the gap may beemployed.

The slide mechanism 520 may have various configurations: itsconfiguration should not be understood as limited to that shown in FIGS.7A-7B as long as the storage unit 510 can slide in the front-reardirection. For example, an actuator having the storage unit 510 attachedto its tip end may be slid by a motor; alternatively, a chain or a beltmoving together with the storage unit 510 may be driven by using a driveroller driven by the motor.

FIGS. 8A-8B show operations of the bill conveying device 500 accordingto the present embodiment. The operation progresses through stages (A)through (H). At stage (A), in an initial state, the storage unit 510 ofthe bill conveying device 500 stands by in the vicinity of the thirdrobot arm 600. In this state, the bill storage container 400 is conveyedto the vicinity of the second robot arm 300 by the box conveying device100, and is unlocked by the first robot arm 200, and then the front lid420 is opened. The second robot arm 300 inserts the robot hand 302 intothe bill storage container 400 to grasp the bill bundle MT. The secondrobot arm 300 may insert the robot hand 302 into the bill storagecontainer 400, pull the bill bundle MT slightly forward, and thenre-insert the robot hand 302 into the bill storage container 400 tofirmly grasp the bill bundle MT. Then at stage (B) the second robot arm300 pulls out the bill bundle MT from the bill storage container 400.

At stage (C) the second robot arm 300 pulls out the bill bundle MT fromthe bill storage container 400, and then images the inside of the billstorage container 400 using the second robot arm imaging unit 350 toconfirm whether or not any bills remain.

At stage (D), when it is confirmed that no bills remain, the storageunit 510 is moved forward to the vicinity of the second robot arm 300along the slide mechanism 520. That is, the slide mechanism 520 movesthe storage unit 510 to the left of the base of the second robot arm 300according to the posture shown in FIG. 1 .

At stage (E), the articulated robot arm sections 301 a and 301 b of thesecond robot arm 300 move the robot hand 302 directly above the storageunit 510 without changing the posture of the robot hand 302. At stage(F), the articulated sections 301 a and 301 b of the second robot arm300 move the robot hand 302 into the storage unit 510 without changingthe posture of the robot hand 302. In the embodiment shown, thearticulated sections 301 a and 301 b of the second robot arm 300 lowerthe robot hand 302 without changing the posture of the robot hand 302.In other words, the articulated sections 301 a and 301 b of the secondrobot arm 300 move the robot hand 302 downward while maintaining thedirection and inclination of the robot hand 302 itself.

At this time, the claw portions 313 and 323 of the robot hand 302 fallwithin the storage unit 510, that is, the inside of the wall portions512 a, 512 b, 512 c, and 512 d, and the base portions 311 and 321 of therobot hand 302 falls outside of the storage unit 510. In other words,the intermediate portions 312 and 322 or the base portions 311 and 321of the robot hand 302 falls between the two wall portions 512 c and 512d on the rear side of storage unit 510.

At stage (G), when the robot hand 302 reaches the bottom surface 511 ofthe storage unit 510, the second robot arm 300 releases the bill bundleMT, and pulls out the robot hand 302 from the storage unit 510. That is,the claw portions 313 and 323 are pulled out rearward through the grooveportion 511X and a space between the two wall portions 512 c and 512 don the rear side of the storage unit 510. The articulated sections 301 aand 301 b of the second robot arm 300 move the robot hand 302 to aposition away from the path of the bill conveying device 500, forexample, to a position to image the key hole of the bill storagecontainer 400.

At stage (H), the slide mechanism 520 moves, such as by a command fromfirst control device 900, the storage unit 510 rearward, that is, to thevicinity of the third robot arm 600. In particular, in the presentembodiment, the arranging mechanism 530 for arranging corners of thebill bundle MT surrounded by the wall portions 512 a, 512 b, 512 c, and512 d is attached to the rear end portion of the slide mechanism 520.

The arranging mechanism 530 may be a vertically long resin member and isconfigured to be movable in the front-rear direction. The arrangingmechanism 530 is disposed at a position where the front end portion ofthe arranging mechanism 530 enters the inside of the wall portions 512 cand 512 d when the storage unit 510 moves to the rear end portion of theslide mechanism 520. As a result, even if the storage unit 510 movesbackward vigorously and suddenly stops at the rear end portion of theslide mechanism 520, the bill bundle MT first comes into contact withthe arranging mechanism 530 and loses its momentum, thereby allowing forreducing the possibility that the bills of the bill bundle MT may jumpout or be unintentionally ejected from the space between the rear wallportions 512 c and 512 d, or that the bill bundle MT collides with therear wall portions 512 d and 512 d and jumps out or is ejected upwardfrom the storage unit 510.

When the storage unit 510 stops at the back end of the slide mechanism520, optionally a paper note or receipt printed by the printer 710 maybe placed by the fourth robot arm 700 onto the bill bundle MT, asdescribed below. The arranging mechanism 530 vibrates in the front-reardirection. As a result, the front end portion of the arranging mechanism530 presses the bill bundle against the front wall portions 512 a and512 b, thereby causing the corner of the bill bundle MT to be aligned.

In this way, in the present embodiment, the articulated section 301 b ofthe second robot arm 300 enters the bill storage container 400 andgrasps the bill bundle MT while maintaining the state in which the robothand 302 is horizontally and oriented in the front-rear direction. Asshown in stage (C), the articulated section 301 a of the second robotarm 300 directs the robot hand 302 in the vertical direction(up-and-down direction) to image the inside of the bill storagecontainer 400, but does not swing in the horizontal direction(left-and-right direction). Subsequently, as shown in stages (D) to (H),while maintaining the state in which the robot hand 302 is horizontaland oriented in the front-rear direction, the second robot arm 300 movesthe bill bundle MT directly above the storage unit 510 and then moves itdown inside the storage unit 510. The operation's sequence of movementsreduces the operation of swinging the robot hand 302 in the directionperpendicular to the direction in which the bill is grasped, forexample, in the left-right direction in the plan view of FIG. 1 .

Note that the robot hand 302 may not be swung in the vertical direction(up-and-down direction). In other words, while maintaining the state inwhich the robot hand 302 is horizontal and oriented in the front-reardirection, the robot hand 302 may be inserted into the bill storagecontainer 400 to grasp the bill bundle MT, move the bill bundle MTdirectly above the storage unit 510, and then lower the bill bundle MTinto the inside of the storage unit 510.

The printer 710 may print on a sheet, such as a sheet of paper or othermaterial, information indicating that the bill bundle MT has been takenout from the bill storage container 400, and then discharges the sheet.More specifically, in the present embodiment, the first control device900 acquires identification or other information about the bill storagecontainer 400 from the box sensor 150 as described previously. The firstcontrol device 900 transmits the information of the bill storagecontainer 400 to the printer 710. The printer 710 prints theidentification or other information of the bill storage container 400 onthe sheet, and discharges the sheet.

The fourth robot arm 700 grasps the sheet in a sheet discharge portionof the printer 710 when the bill conveying device 500 conveys the billbundle MT backward. Note that the identification information of the billstorage container 400 storing the bill has been printed on the sheet;the identification information had been printed by the printer 710. Thefourth robot arm 700 places the grasped sheet on the top surface of thebill bundle MT in the storage unit 510. Subsequently, the sheet and thebill bundle MT are arranged together by the arranging mechanism 530 a.More specifically, in the present embodiment, the bill bundle MT isarranged in the front-rear direction by the arranging mechanism 530, andthe bill bundle MT may be arranged in the left-right direction by thefourth robot arm 700. In the present embodiment, the bill bundle MT isarranged in the upper right corner of the storage unit 510 by theabove-described two operations.

FIG. 9 shows a plan view of a case storage mechanism 800 placed inproximity to the third robot arm 600. FIG. 10 shows a side view of thethird robot arm 600. The third robot arm 600 may operate to move thebill bundle MT from the storage unit 510 into a bill storage case 10, asdescribed further below.

The third robot arm 600 includes the alternate robot hand 610 and arobot arm section RA. As shown in FIG. 10 , the alternate robot hand 610(or just “robot hand 610” when context is clear) is a two-finger robothand. The robot hand 610 is fixed to the end of the robot arm sectionRA. As shown in FIG. 10 , the robot hand 610 includes a movable finger621 and a fixed finger 622, which are configured to grasp the billbundle MT. The third robot arm 600 may be operably controlled, such asby any of the first control device 900 or the second or third controldevices 1000 and 1100, as described further below.

FIG. 11 shows further details of the alternate robot hand 610. The robothand 610 includes a movable finger 621, a fixed finger 622, a movablefinger lifting mechanism 623, an extrusion portion 624, an extrusionportion reciprocating mechanism 625, and a connecting portion 626. Therobot hand 610 may be communicatively connected to the first controldevice 900 of the automatic bill handling system 1, or to anothercontrol device.

The movable finger 621 is configured for gripping the bill bundle MT,and is a thick plate portion having a bifurcated shape in the presentembodiment. The movable finger 621 faces a fixed finger 622, which willbe described below and is substantially parallel to the fixed finger622. The movable finger 621 is fixed to a front lifting plate 623B (asdescribed below) of the movable finger lifting mechanism 623. A markermay be displayed on one side surface of the movable finger 621.

The fixed finger 622 is configured for gripping the bill bundle MT, andis a thick plate portion having a bifurcated shape similar to themovable finger 621 in the present embodiment. As described above, thefixed finger 622 faces the movable finger 621 and is substantiallyparallel to the movable finger 621. The fixed finger 622 is fixed to asupport plate 623A (as described below) of the movable finger liftingmechanism 623. In the fixed finger 622, a marker may be displayed on thesame side as the side where the marker display surface of the movablefinger 621 is disposed. The markers displayed on one side surface ofeach of the fixed finger 622 and the movable finger 621 are alignedalong a direction in which the movable finger 621 faces the fixed finger622.

The movable finger lifting mechanism 623 is a two-stage stroke typelifting mechanism, and includes a support plate 623A, a front liftingplate 623B, a rear lifting plate 623C, a front air cylinder mechanism623D, and a rear air cylinder mechanism 623E. The support plate 623Asupports the rear air cylinder mechanism 623E. The rear air cylindermechanism 623E operates in a double-acting manner, and is a drivingsource for raising and lowering the rear lifting plate 623C. The rearair cylinder mechanism 623E is attached to the support plate 623A asdescribed above. The front air cylinder mechanism 623D is attached tothe rear lifting plate 623C. The front air cylinder mechanism 623Doperates in a double-acting manner and is a driving source for raisingand lowering the front lifting plate 623B. As described above, themovable finger 621 is attached to the front lifting plate 623B. In otherwords, the rear air cylinder mechanism 623E raises and/or lowers thefront air cylinder mechanism 623D, the front lifting plate 623B, and themovable finger 621 by raising and/or lowering the rear lifting plate623C. In contrast, the front air cylinder mechanism 623D raises and/orlowers the movable finger 621 by raising and/or lowering the frontlifting plate 623B. The front air cylinder mechanism 623D and the rearair cylinder mechanism 623E are each provided with an air supply/exhaustport (not shown). These air supply/exhaust ports are each connected toan air supply/exhaust pipe (not shown). The movable finger liftingmechanism 623 allows the fixed finger 622 and the movable finger 621 togrip the bill bundle MT and also to release the bill bundle MT.

Extrusion portion 624, which is a rectangular plate member, pushes outthe bill bundle MT when the alternate robot hand 610 releases the billbundle MT held by the alternate robot hand 610, and withdraws from aconveyance destination. This serves to reduce or prevent the alternaterobot hand 610 from dragging the bill bundle MT as it withdraws. Theextrusion portion 624 is fixed to the end of an extrusion portionreciprocating mechanism 625, which will be described further below. Theextrusion portion 624 is reciprocated in a front-back direction by theextrusion portion reciprocating mechanism 625.

The extrusion portion reciprocating mechanism 625 is a mechanism forreciprocating the extrusion portion 624 in the front-back direction, andis fixed to the upper surface of the fixed finger 622. A reciprocatingdirection of the extrusion portion reciprocating mechanism 625 isparallel to an extending direction of the fixed finger 622. Theextrusion portion reciprocating mechanism 625 may be an air cylindermechanism or the like. The connecting portion 626 is a portion forconnecting the alternate robot hand 610 to the robot arm section RA ofthe third robot arm 600, and is, for example, a flange or the like.

The imaging device 650 is, for example, a digital camera such as a CMOS,CCD or other type of camera or other optical imager, and is disposed tothe lower left of the third robot arm 600, as shown in FIG. 9 . Theimaging device 650 may capture one or more images in sequence, and maybe configured to capture video. As shown in FIG. 9 , the imaging device650 is disposed such that its imaging direction is directed away fromthe case storage mechanism 800. When a side surface of the alternaterobot hand 610 on the marker display side enters an imaging area, theimaging device 650 images the side surface of the alternate robot hand610 and then transmits the obtained image data to the first controldevice 900, or to the third control device 1100 (as described below).Note that in the present embodiment, the alternate robot hand 610 gripsthe bill bundle MT before the side surface of the alternate robot hand610 on the marker display side enters the imaging area. In other words,when the imaging device 650 images the side surface of the alternaterobot hand 610 on the marker display side, the bill bundle MT has beenheld by the alternate robot hand 610.

FIG. 12 shows a side view of both the third robot arm 600 and the casestorage mechanism 800, as they might be configured on base 50 of theautomatic bill handling system 1. The third robot arm 600 is shown in aposition in which it would be inserting a bill bundle into bill storagecase 10. The bill storage case 10 is mounted at an angle on a mountingtable 810 of the case storage mechanism 800. Referring to the plan viewof FIG. 9 , the mounting table 810 is configured to hold two billstorage cases 10 arranged side by side so that the first bill storagecase 10 (shown to the top in FIG. 9 ) faces toward the third robot arm600, whereas the second bill storage case 10 faces away from the thirdrobot arm 600.

The configuration of the bill storage case 10 will now be explained inreference to FIGS. 13A-13E. Thereafter, details regarding the structureof the case storage mechanism 800 will be explained in relation to FIGS.14 and 15A-15C. Thereafter, various operations of the case storagemechanism 800 will be explained in relation to the control devices 900,1000, and 1100 shown in FIGS. 17A, 18, and 19 , respectively.

The bill storage case 10 has an opening OP in the top surface, partialbox unit 11 that includes the side walls: bottom 11A, and sides 11B,11C, 11D, and 11E. The bill storage case 10 includes the detachablefront wall unit 12. The bill storage case 10 includes a right flangeportion 11E, a left flange portion 11F, a rear handle Br, a right sidereceiving portion Rr, and a left side receiving portion Rl. The bottomwall portion 11A is a rectangular portion that constitutes the bottomwall of the bill storage case 10. The back wall portion 11B is a portionconstituting the back wall of the bill storage case 10, and extendsupward from the rear end of the bottom wall portion 11A as shown inFIGS. 5 and 6 . As shown in FIG. 13A, the back wall portion 11B has aconcave shape in which the upper center is cut off. The right side wallportion 11C is a rectangular portion constituting the right side wall ofthe bill storage case 10, and extends upward from the right end of thebottom wall portion 11A as shown in FIGS. 13A-13C. The left side wallportion 11D is a rectangular portion constituting the left side wall ofthe bill storage case 10, and extends upward from the left end of thebottom wall portion 11A as shown in FIGS. 13A-13C. The right flangeportion 11E is a rectangular portion for supporting the right sidereceiving portion Rr therein, and is attached to the outside of thefront end portion of the right side wall portion 11C. The left flangeportion 11F is a rectangular portion for supporting the left sidereceiving portion Rl therein, and is attached to the outside of thefront end portion of the left side wall portion 11D. The rear handle Bris attached to the upper end portion of the outer surface of the backwall portion 11B. The right receiving portion Rr is a cylindricalportion for receiving a right lock pin Sr, which will be describedlater, and is embedded in the right flange portion 11E so that the axisof the cylindrical portion extends along the front-back direction. Theleft-side receiving portion Rl is a cylindrical portion for receiving aleft-side lock pin Sl, which will be described later, and is embedded inthe left flange portion 11F so that the axis of the cylindrical portionextends along the front-back direction. Note that the symbol Lr shown inFIG. 13B indicates a right lock mechanism, and the right lock mechanismis composed of a right receiving portion Rr and a right lock pin Sr.Likewise, the symbol Ll shown in FIG. 13B indicates a left side lockmechanism, and the left side lock mechanism is composed of the left-sidereceiving portion Rl and the left-side lock pin Sl.

As shown in FIG. 13D, the front wall unit 12 is formed of the front wallportion 12A, a front handle Bf, the right lock pin Sr, and the left lockpin 51. The front wall portion 12A is literally a rectangular portionthat constitutes the front wall of the bill storage case 10. Note thatthe width of the front wall portion 12A is the same as the length fromthe right end of the right flange portion 11E to the left end of theleft flange portion 11F. The front handle Bf is attached to the upperend portion of the outer surface of the front wall portion 12. The rightlock pin Sr is a ball lock pin type lock pin in which pushing its tipallows a ball disposed at the rear end portion to be inserted, and isfixed to the right center portion of the front wall portion 12A so as topenetrate the right center portion of the front wall portion 12A asshown in FIG. 13D. Like the right lock pin Sr, the left lock pin Sl is aball lock pin type lock pin in which pushing its tip allows a balldisposed at the rear end portion to be inserted, and is fixed to theleft center portion of the front wall portion 12A so as to penetrate theleft center portion of the front wall portion 12A.

The lock mechanisms Lr and Ll may be a ball lock type lock mechanisms,as now described, or may be another removable type locking mechanism.When a piston is pushed in the lock pins Sr and Sl against the urgingforce, the projecting portions (balls) Pr disposed on the opposite sidebecome a state in which they can be inserted radially inward. Thisallows the lock pins Sr and Sl to be pulled out from the receivingportions Rr and Rl, as shown in FIG. 13E. In contrast, when the pistonis pushed back by the urging force, the projecting portions (balls) Prprotrude radially outward and the projecting portions Pr are locked(i.e., a state in which the projecting portions (balls) Pr cannot beinserted radially inward is achieved). This disables the lock pins Srand Sl from being pulled out from the receiving portions Rr and Rl.

FIGS. 14 and 15A-15C illustrate how the bill storage case 10 may bepositioned on the case storage mechanism 800. The case storage mechanism800 includes the mounting table 810 that is an inclined table having asubstantially right-angled triangular shape in the side view of FIG. 12, and is formed with pedestal portions on the circular table 811 and amain body portion 812. The main body portion 812 is disposed on theupper side of the pedestal portions on the circular table 811. Theinclined surface of the main body portion 812 is used as a mountingsurface for mounting the bill storage case 10. The bill storage case 10is detachably mounted on the mounting surface of the main body portion812 such that the front wall unit 12 (described above) of the billstorage case 10 is positioned above the mounting table 810.

The case storage mechanism 800 includes the suction mechanism 820, whichis a vacuum chuck mechanism or the like for chucking the front wall unit12 of the bill storage case 10, and includes a housing 821, a guide rail822, a slide bar (not shown), a reciprocating mechanism (not shown), anair supply/exhaust device (not shown), a bellows chuck 823, and asupport plate 824, as shown in FIG. 14 . The main part of the guide rail822, the slide bar, and the reciprocating mechanism are accommodated inthe housing 821. The guide rail 822 is a member for guiding the slidebar, and is disposed along a direction parallel to the inclined surfaceof the mounting table 810. The slide bar is a rod-shaped member movablealong the guide rail 822, and is attached to the reciprocatingmechanism. In other words, the slide bar is moved along the guide rail822 by the reciprocating mechanism. Examples of the reciprocatingmechanism include an air cylinder mechanism, a rack and pinionmechanism, a ball screw mechanism, a motor cylinder mechanism, anelectric slider mechanism, a belt slider mechanism, and a linear slidermechanism. Examples of the driving source include air pressure and anelectric motor. The bellows chuck 823 is a member in contact with anobject to be adsorbed; the bellows chuck 823 is supported by the supportplate 824, and is pipe-connected to the air supply/exhaust device. Whenthe bellows chuck 823 contacts the object to be sucked and contracts,the air supply/exhaust device exhausts the air in the bellows chuck 823,thereby adsorbing the object to be sucked. In contrast, when releasingthe object to be sucked from the bellows chuck 823, the airsupply/exhaust device supplies air into the bellows chuck 823. Thesupport plate 824 is disposed on both sides of the lower end of theslide bar as shown to support the bellows chuck 823. As shown in FIG. 10, a contact plate 424 a is jointed to the outside of the support plate824. The contact plate 824 a is provided for the purpose of releasing alock state of lock mechanisms Lr and Ll (described above) of the billstorage case 10.

The suction mechanism 820 is communicatively connected to a controlunit, such as of one of the control devices 900, 1000, or 1100 asrespectively shown in FIGS. 17A, 18, and 19 . In the suction mechanism820, the reciprocating mechanism and the air supply/exhaust device areto be controlled by the control device.

The suction mechanism 820 is in a state shown in FIGS. 9 and 15A duringstandby; that is, it is in a state in which the bellows chuck 823 hasbeen pulled upward. When the suction mechanism 820 receives an operationstart signal from the control unit 1110 of the third control device1100, the suction mechanism 820 lowers the slide bar as shown in FIG. 15b , thereby causing the bellows chuck 823 to be in contact with thefront wall unit 12 of the bill storage case 10 that is an object to besucked in the present embodiment; furthermore, the suction mechanism 820presses the bellows chuck 823 against the front wall unit 12, whilemaintaining the contact state, to contract the bellows chuck 823. Atthis time, the air supply/exhaust device of the suction mechanism 820discharges the air in the bellows chuck 823 to the outside, therebysucking the front wall unit 12 to the bellows chuck 823. At the sametime, the contact plate 824 a of the support plate 824 pushes the rightlock pin Sr and the left lock pin Sl of the bill storage case 10 intothe front wall unit 12 to release a locked state of the lock mechanismsLr and Ll and maintain its unlocked state. Subsequently, the suctionmechanism 820 raises the slide bar while maintaining the unlocked stateof the lock mechanisms Lr and Ll of the bill storage case 10 by thecontact plate 824 a, and pulls the front wall unit 12 upward.

In contrast, in reconfiguring the wall unit 12 onto the bill storagecase 10, the suction mechanism 820 lowers the slide bar to bring thefront wall unit 12 into contact with the partial box unit 11. Next,supplying air from the air supply/exhaust device into the bellows chuck823 causes the bellows chuck 823 to release the front wall unit 12.Subsequently, the suction mechanism 820 raises the slide bar and returnsto a standby state. When the slide bar is pulled up, the right lock pinSr and the left lock pin Sl of the bill storage case 10 return to thelocked state by urging force, and the front wall unit 12 is locked withrespect to the partial box unit 11. The reconfiguration of the billstorage case 10 is performed after the above-described operation startsignal is received and then the front wall unit 12 is pulled upward.

The case storage mechanism 800 includes the turntable 850. The turntable850 includes a rotation power mechanism 860 and a circular table 811.The rotation power mechanism 860 is a power source such as an aircylinder or a stepping motor, and a shaft 865 extends along a rotationalaxis thereof. An upper end portion of the shaft 865 is fitted to acenter portion of the circular table 811. The rotation power mechanism860 of the turntable 850 is communicatively connected to the controlunit of the third control device 1100 as shown in FIG. 19 . The circulartable 811 is a circular thick plate member. As described above, theturntable 850 is fitted to the upper end portion of the shaft 865 at thecenter portion thereof. As shown in FIG. 14 , a pair of wallattaching/detaching devices 805 are mounted (fixed) on the circulartable 811 such that the pair of wall attaching/detaching devices 805 aredirected in directions opposite to each other.

Three embodiments of control devices 900, 1000, and 1100 will now bedescribed in relation to FIGS. 17A-17D, 18, and 19 . The control devicesmay be used to control, either separately or in unison, the variouscomponents of the automatic bill handling system 1.

The first control device 900 includes a CPU 910, a memory 920, a displayunit 930, an operation unit 940, a communication interface 960, aspeaker 970, and may include other subunits. The CPU 910 may controleach or some of the components of the automatic bill handling system 1,in accordance with programs stored in the memory 920.

The second control device 1000 shown in the block diagram of FIG. 18includes a control unit 1010, a derivation unit 1020, a memory unit1030, and an acquisition unit 1040. These components will be describedin further detail below. The second control device 1000 may be used tocontrol the third robot arm 600.

The third control device 1100 shown in the block diagram of FIG. 19includes a control unit 1110, a calculation unit 1120, a memory unit1130, and an acquisition unit 1140. These components will be describedin detail below in relation to their operations. The third controldevice 1100 may be communicatively linked with the suction mechanism820, the imaging device 650, and the robot arm section RA and thealternate robot hand 610 of the third robot arm 600.

Returning now to the first control device 900, in one method the CPU 910receives an instruction from the operation unit 940, and/or displays anoperation status of the automatic bill handling system 1 on the displayunit 930. The CPU 910 acquires data from each unit of the automatic billhandling system 1 via the communication interface 960, and may controlone or more components of the automatic bill handling system 1.

For example, the memory 920 stores container type data 921 as shown inFIG. 17B. The container type data 921 stores, for each type of the billstorage container, a size of the bill storage container, a position ofthe key hole, an angle of the key hole, a type of the key, and the like.The memory 920 may also store individual container data 922 as shown inFIG. 17C. For each bill storage container, identification information, atype of the bill storage container, data for a device that has been set,data for the date and time when the bill was collected last time, andthe like are stored in the individual container data 922 stores.

As a result, the CPU 910 identifies the type of the bill storagecontainer 400 to be targeted by referring to the individual containerdata 922 based on the information received from the box sensor 150,and/or identifies the position and angle of the key hole by referring tothe container type data 921. The CPU 910 then transmits the position andangle of the key hole to the first robot arm 200 via the communicationinterface 960.

In addition, based on the data from the imaging device 650 of the thirdrobot arm 600, the CPU 910 may calculate the thickness of the billbundle MT grasped this time, stores the thickness of the accumulatedbills in the memory 920, and/or rotates the turntable 850 when apredetermined quantity of bills accumulates in the case CA.

The first control device 900 of FIG. 17A measures the thickness of thebill bundles MT from the distance between the markers of the movablefinger 621 and the fixed finger 622 of the robot hand 610 of the thirdrobot arm 600 based on image data sent from the imaging device 650. Thefirst control device 900 measures the thickness of the bundle of billsMT by analyzing and calculating the distance between the markers whenthe robot hand 610 grasps the bundle of bills MT from the image data.The first control device 900 derives the conveying speed and theswirling radius of the bundle of bills MT according to the thicknessdata of the bundle of bills MT (hereinafter referred to as “thicknessdata”). For example, the first control device 900 may compare thethickness data with the control table stored in a memory, which will bedescribed later, to derive the conveying speed and the swirling radiuscorresponding to the thickness data, or may substitute the thicknessdata into a calculation formula for calculating the conveying speed fromthe thickness data and a calculation formula for calculating theswirling radius from the thickness data to derive the conveying speedand the swirling radius corresponding to the thickness data. Then, thefirst control device 900 transmits the data of the conveying speed andthe swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT to the third robot arm600. Controlling the conveying speed and the swirling radius of thebundle of bills MT controls the conveying speed and the swirling radiusof the alternate robot hand 610.

In another method that may be controlled by the first control device900, the first control device 900 may control operations of unlockingthe bill storage container 400 by controlling the first robot arm 200.The first robot arm 200 may have a plurality of types of keyscorresponding to a type of the bill storage container 400. The front lid420 may be unlocked by a key corresponding to the bill storage container400 by detection by the box sensor 150.

More specifically, the memory 920 of the first control device 900 storeskey data 923 as shown in FIG. 17D. For each type of key, identificationinformation, a correction value for the position of the key with respectto the position of a key serving as a reference, a correction value forthe angle of the key with respect to the angle of a key serving as areference, and a size, that is, a width, a height, a depth, and the likeof the key are stored in the key data 923.

As a result, based on the data received from the box sensor 150, the CPU910 identifies the type of the bill storage container 400 to be targetedby referring to the individual container data 922, identifies theposition and angle of the key hole by referring to the container typedata 921, and identifies the type of the key and various correctedvalues corresponding to the bill storage container 400. The CPU 910 thentransmits the position, angle, key type, and/or corrected values of thekey hole to the first robot arm 200 via the communication interface 960.As a result, the first robot arm 200 unlocks the key specified in thekey hole of the bill storage container 400 by inserting the key whilecorrecting the position and the angle using the corrected values.

Now will be described a method of operating the third robot arm 600 thatmay be controlled by the second control device 1000 of FIG. 18 . Thesecond control device 1000 may be connected to each of the robot armsection RA of the third robot arm 600, the alternate robot hand 610, andthe imaging device 650. The control unit 1010 controls the operations ofthe robot arm section RA and the alternate robot hand 610, and theprocessing of image data from the imaging device 650 by transmittingvarious control signals to the robot arm RA, the alternate robot hand610, and the imaging device 650. The control unit 1010 transmits controlsignals to the robot arm RA, the robot hand 610, and the imaging device650 in accordance with instructions described in a control programstored in the memory unit 1030. In addition, the control unit 1010 readsout data necessary for generating a control signal from at least one ofthe derivation unit 1020 and the memory unit 1030, generates a controlsignal from the data, and transmits the control signal to the robot armsection RA, the robot hand 610, and the imaging device 650.

The derivation unit 1020 is, for example, a processing device of acentral processing unit of a computer or the like, and generates datanecessary for generating a control signal from data stored in the memoryunit 1030 and data transmitted from the acquisition unit 1040, andsupplies the data to the control unit 1010. For example, the derivationunit 1020 measures the thickness of the bundle of bills MT from thedistance between the markers of the movable finger 621 and the fixedfinger 622 of the alternate robot hand 610 based on the image data sentfrom the imaging device 650 via the acquisition unit 1040. Thederivation unit 1020 measures the thickness of the bundle of bills MT byanalyzing and calculating the distance between the markers when therobot hand 610 grasps the bundle of bills MT based on the image data.The derivation unit 1020 derives the conveying speed and the swirlingradius of the bundle of bills MT according to the thickness data of thebundle of bills MT (hereinafter referred to as “thickness data”). Forexample, the derivation unit 1020 may compare the thickness data withthe control table stored in the memory unit 1030 to derive the conveyingspeed and the swirling radius corresponding to the thickness data, ormay substitute the thickness data into a calculation formula forcalculating the conveying speed from the thickness data and acalculation formula for calculating the swirling radius from thethickness data to derive the conveying speed and the swirling radiuscorresponding to the thickness data. Then, the derivation unit 1020transmits the data of the conveying speed and the swirling radius of thebundle of bills MT to the control unit 1010. Controlling the conveyingspeed and the swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT controls theconveying speed and the swirling radius of the alternate robot hand 610.

The memory unit 1030 may store one or more control programs, controlparameters, control tables, or the like. The acquisition unit 1040 is,for example, a communication interface of a computer or the like, andhas a function of receiving the image data obtained by the imagingdevice 650 and transmitting it to the derivation unit 1020.

Next, in a first method that may be controlled by the third controldevice 1100, the third control device 1100 controls operations of thethird robot arm 600. First, the third control device 1100 controls therobot arm RA to move the alternate robot hand 610 to a position wherethe alternate robot hand 610 is waiting at a predetermined position cangrasp the bundle of bills MT (see a broken line in FIG. 9 ). Then, thethird control device 1100 controls the movable finger 621 of the robothand 110 to move the movable finger 621 of the robot hand 610, which hasbeen pulled upward in advance, downward to grasp the bundle of bills MTtogether with the fixed finger 622. In this embodiment, the bundle ofbills MT may be prepared in advance so that the robot hand 610 can moreeasily grasp the bundle of bills MT.

Next, in a state where the robot hand 610 grasps the bundle of bills MT,the imaging device 650 obtains image data of the side surfaces of themovable finger 621 and the fixed finger 622 of the robot hand 610 so asto fit in one image. The imaging device 650 transmits the image data tothe acquisition unit 1140 of the third control device 1100. A series ofthese processes are performed between the time when the robot hand 610grasps the bundle of bills MT and the time when the third robot arm 600starts conveying the bundle of bills MT.

Subsequently, the third control device 1100 receives the image datatransmitted from the imaging device 650, and transmits the image data tothe acquisition unit 1140 of the third control device 1100. The thirdcontrol device 1100 measures or estimates the thickness of the bundle ofbills MT, such as in the calculation unit 1120, based on the positionalrelationship between the movable finger 621 and the fixed finger 622 ofthe robot hand 610 inferred from the image data. Then, the third controldevice 1100 derives the conveying speed and the swirling radius of thebundle of bills MT corresponding to the thickness data, and transmitsthe data of the conveying speed and the swirling radius of the bundle ofbills MT to the control unit of the third robot arm 600. A series ofthese processes is also performed between the time when the robot hand610 grasps the bundle of bills MT and the time when the third robot arm600 starts conveying the bundle of bills MT. Then, the third robot arm600 executes the control described below using the derived conveyingspeed and swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT.

The third control device 1100 controls the conveying speed and theswirling radius of the bundle of bills MT by using the derived data ofthe conveying speed and the swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT.For example, as the thickness of the bundle of bills MT increases, thethird control device 1100 decreases the conveying speed of the bundle ofbills MT and shorten the swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT. Inaddition, as the thickness of the bundle of bills MT decreases, thethird control device 1100 increases the conveying speed of the bundle ofbills MT and lengthens the swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT.However, the third control device 1100 controls the conveying speed andthe swirling radius of the bundle of bills MT within the ranges of themaximum value and the minimum value set for the conveying speed and theswirling radius of the bundle of bills MT, respectively. Then, the thirdcontrol device 1100 controls the robot arm RA to convey the bundle ofbills MT to the case CA as the conveying destination. The third controldevice 1100 controls the robot arm RA so that the bundle of bills MT aresequentially stacked in the bill storage case 10.

Subsequently, the third control device 1100 controls the robot arm RA toinsert the movable finger 621 and the fixed finger 622 of the alternaterobot hand 610 into the back side of the bill storage case 10. Then, thethird control device 1100 controls the movable finger 621 to move up themovable finger 621, to release the grasping state, and to release thebundle of bills MT. Then, the third control device 1100 controls therobot arm RA to retract the robot hand 610 from the bill storage case 10while maintaining the inclination angle of the alternate robot hand 610.Finally, the third control device 1100 controls the robot arm RA to movethe alternate robot hand 610 to a predetermined position in preparationfor the conveyance of the next bundle of bills MT.

In another method that may be controlled by the third control device1100, the third robot arm 600 and the case storage mechanism 800 arecontrolled by the third control device 1100 to move bill bundles MT intoa bill storage case 10, and control the amount, size, or number of billbundles MT moved into the bill storage case 10.

The control unit 1110 of the third control device 1100 transmits variouscontrol signals to the third robot arm 600, the alternate robot hand610, the imaging device 650, the suction mechanism 820, and the rotationpower mechanism 860, thereby controlling an operation of the third robotarm 600, an operation of the alternate robot hand 610, an imagingprocess of the imaging device 650, an operation of the suction mechanism820, and an operation of the rotation power mechanism 860. Note that thecontrol unit 1110 may transmit control signals to these, and possiblyother components, in accordance with instructions described in a controlprogram stored in the memory unit 1130.

After the alternate robot hand 610 grips the bill bundle MT, the controlunit 1110 controls the third robot arm 600 to move the alternate robothand 610 to an imaging point of the imaging device 650. After receivingan operation completion signal from the third robot arm 600, the controlunit 1110 transmits an imaging process execution signal to the imagingdevice 650. The imaging device 650 that has received the imaging processexecution signal executes an imaging process, and transmits capturedimage data obtained by the imaging process to the acquisition unit 1140of the third control device 1100. After transmitting the operation startsignal to the suction mechanism 820, the control unit 1110 controls theoperation sequence of the suction mechanism 820, the third robot arm600, and the alternate robot hand 610 using the operation completionsignal each transmitted from the suction mechanism 820, the third robotarm 600, and the alternate robot hand 610 via the acquisition unit 1140.

The calculation unit 1120 of the third control device 1100 may be, forexample, an arithmetic device of a central processing unit of acomputer, and may generate data necessary for generating control signalsfrom data stored in the memory unit 1130 and data transmitted from theacquisition unit 1140, and then supplies that data to the control unit1110. For example, the calculation unit 1120 may calculate a distancebetween the marker (or markers) of the movable finger 621 and the markerof the fixed finger 622 of the alternate robot hand 610 from the imagingdata transmitted from the imaging device 650 via the acquisition unit1140, and then determine or estimate a thickness of the bill bundle MTheld by the robot hand 610 from the calculated distance.

Additionally, the calculation unit 1120 integrates (e.g., sums) thethickness of multiple bill bundles MT for each iteration of moving abill bundle MT to the bill storage case 10, and determines whether theintegrated value exceeds a first threshold value and whether theintegrated value exceeds a third threshold value (i.e., a thresholdvalue larger than the first threshold value). Here, the first thresholdindicates a prospect of the thickness of the bill bundle MT before therobot hand 610 becomes difficult to enter the bill storage case 10through the opening OP, and the third threshold indicates a prospect ofthe thickness of the bill bundle MT that can be accommodated in the billstorage case 10. When the calculation unit 1120 determines that theintegrated value exceeds the first threshold, the calculation unit 1120transmits to the control unit 1110 a signal indicating an instructionfor transmitting an operation start signal (hereinafter referred to asan “operation start signal transmission instruction signal”) to thesuction mechanism 820. The control unit 1110 that has received theoperation start signal transmission instruction signal from the suctionmechanism 820 transmits an operation start signal to the suctionmechanism 820. Subsequently, after detaching the front wall unit 12 fromthe bill storage case 10, the suction mechanism 820 attaches the frontwall unit 12 to the partial box unit 11 (described later) and then stopsits operation. Upon determining that the integrated value exceeds thethird threshold, the calculation unit 1120 transmits, to the controlunit 1110, an operation start signal transmission command signal for therotation power mechanism 860 and resets the integrated value to “0”. Thecontrol unit 1110 that has received the operation start signaltransmission instruction signal for the rotation power mechanism 865transmits an operation start signal to the rotation power mechanism 860.The rotation power mechanism 860 then rotates the circular table 811 byhalf. Subsequently, when the thickness of the bill bundle MT is measuredagain, the calculation unit 1120 integrates the thickness of the billbundle MT again, and the above-described processing is repeated.

Additionally, the calculation unit 1120 determines whether theintegrated value exceeds a second threshold value (a threshold valuelarger than the first threshold value and smaller than the thirdthreshold value) every time a thickness of the bill bundle MT isintegrated. The second threshold indicates a prospect of the thicknessof the bill bundle MT for which it is substantially impossible for thealternate robot hand 610 to enter the bill storage case 10 through theopening OP. When determining that the integrated value exceeds thesecond threshold, the calculation unit 1120 transmits, to the controlunit 1110, a signal indicating an instruction for transmitting anoperation change signal to the third robot arm 600 (hereinafter referredto as the an “operation change signal transmission instruction signal”).The control unit 1110 that has received the operation change signaltransmission instruction signal for the third robot arm 600 transmitsthe operation change signal to the third robot arm 600. Then, the thirdrobot arm 600 switches its operation from “an operation of making thealternate robot hand 610 (i.e., the bill bundle MT) enter the interiorof the bill storage case 10 through the opening OP” to “an operation ofmaking the alternate robot hand 610 (i.e., the bill bundle MT) enter theinterior of the bill storage case 10 through the opening on the frontside of the partial box unit 11 (i.e., the opening on the side where thefront wall unit 12 existed)”.

Further, when determining that the integrated value exceeds the thirdthreshold, the calculation unit 1120 transmits an operation start signaltransmission instruction signal for the rotation power mechanism 860 tothe control unit 1110, and resets the integrated value to 0. The controlunit 1110 that has received the operation start signal transmissioninstruction signal for the rotation power mechanism 860 transmits anoperation start signal to the rotation power mechanism 860. This causesthe rotation power mechanism 860 to rotate the circular table 811 byhalf. Subsequently, when a thickness of the bill bundle MT is measuredagain, the calculation unit 1120 integrates the thickness of the billbundle MT again, and the above-described processing is repeated.

Various advantages may occur by such an integration process. When thecalculation unit 1120 determines that the integrated value of thethickness of the bill bundle MT exceeds the first threshold, the frontwall unit 12 is removed from the bill storage case 10 by the suctionmechanism 820, and the partial box unit 11 is packed with the papersheet bundle MT by the first robot arm 200 with a robot hand. Thus, inthe case storage mechanism 800, when the bill bundle MT is boxed by thethird robot arm 600 with the alternate robot hand 610, as much space ofthe bill storage case 10 as possible may be used for accommodating thebill bundle MT. Also, when the calculation unit 1120 determines that theintegrated value of the thickness of the paper sheet bundle MT exceedsthe first threshold value, the suction mechanism 820 starts the frontwall unit attaching/detaching operation. Thus, in the case storagemechanism 800, while the amount or size of the bill bundle MT to beboxed into the bill storage case 10 is small and the space in which therobot hand 610 can be inserted into the bill storage case 10 issufficient, the detaching operation of the front wall unit 12 by thesuction mechanism 820 and a reconfiguration operation of the billstorage case 10 can be omitted.

When the calculation unit 1120 determines that the integrated value ofthe bill bundle MT exceeds the second threshold value, the third robotarm 600 with alternate robot hand 610 can pack the bill bundle MT fromthe opening on the side of the detached front wall unit 12. This allowsthe case storage mechanism 800 to compress the bill bundle MT every timethe bill bundle MT is packed in the partial box unit 11, and can soincrease a filling ratio of the bill bundle MT in the bill storage case10.

When the calculation unit 1120 determines that the integrated value ofthe thickness of the bill bundle MT exceeds the third threshold, therotation power mechanism 860 rotates the circular table 8110 by halfThus, with the case storage mechanism 800, an operator can safelycollect a filled bill storage case 10 at a position away from the thirdrobot arm 600.

In additional and/or alternative variations, the measurement of thethickness of the bill bundle MT may be performed by other components,such as the second robot arm 300 as it removes the bill bundle MT fromthe bill storage container 400. The thickness of the bill bundle may bedetermined or estimated using a pressure sensor disposed in thealternate robot hand 610.

While the case storage mechanism 800 is illustrated with a configurationfor mounting two bill storage cases 10, one skilled in the art willrecognize that it may be configured for mounting more than two. Forexample, it could be configured to hold three bill storage cases 10oriented 120 degrees away from each other, or four bill storage cases 10positioned at right angles to each other. When N bill storage cases 10are arranged on the circular table 811 in the above-described manner,the rotation power mechanism 860 rotates the circular table 811 by 360/N(degree) when switching between which bill storage case 10 is beingpacked.

In another embodiment of the case storage mechanism 800, the third robotarm 600, the alternate robot hand 610, and the suction mechanism 820each transmit an operation completion signal to the third control device1100, and the control unit 1110 transmits a new operation start signalto the third robot arm 600, the alternate robot hand 610, and thesuction mechanism 820 after receiving an operation completion signal,thereby controlling (interlock controlling) the operation order of thethird robot arm 600, the alternate robot hand 610, and the suctionmechanism 820; alternatively, the operations of the third robot arm 600,the alternate robot hand 610, and the suction mechanism 820 may betiming-controlled (may be subjected to time management control) during aperiod from a time of detaching the front wall unit 12 by the suctionmechanism 820 to a time of reconstructing the bill storage case 10.

In another embodiment of the case storage mechanism 800, the bill bundleMT is inserted from the opening OP on the top surface side until thecalculation unit 1120 determines that the integrated value of thethickness of the bill bundle MT exceeds the second threshold, and thesheet bundle MT is inserted into the bill storage case 10 from theopening on the front surface side of the partial box unit 11 (i.e., theopening on the side where the front wall unit 12 existed) after thecalculation unit 1120 determines that the integrated value of thethickness of the bill bundle MT exceeds the first threshold;alternatively, the paper sheet bundle MT may be inserted into the billstorage case 10 from the opening on the front surface side of thepartial box unit 11 at a timing when the calculation unit 1120determines that the integrated value of the thickness of the paper sheetbundle MT exceeds the first threshold. In such a case, the secondthreshold is unnecessary.

In further embodiments of the case storage mechanism 800, although acircular table 811 is described above as the table of the turntable 850,the shape of the table need not be so limited, and a table of anarbitrary shape may be used. Although the turntable 850 described aboveis automatically-controlled, a manually-controlled turntable may beused. Although the suction mechanism 820 such as the vacuum chuckmechanism is employed as a means for chucking the front wall unit 12 ofthe bill storage case 10, another grasping mechanism may be employed asa means for chucking the front wall unit 12 of the bill storage case 10.In this case, it is assumed that the alternate grasping mechanism canlift the front wall unit 12 while releasing the locked state of the billstorage case 10. Although a ball lock type lock mechanism is describedas the lock mechanisms Lr and Ll, another lock mechanism may beemployed. However, in this case, it is assumed that the suctionmechanism 820 can lift the front wall unit 12 while releasing the lockedstate.

Described now are various further embodiments for the robot hand 302and/or the alternate robot hand 610 as previously described. Note againthat although the bill bundle MT is shown as the object to be grasped bythe robot hand 302 in the above embodiment, the object to be grasped bythe robot hand 302 and/or the alternate robot hand 610 may be anotherpaper sheet, an object, or the like.

In a one variation, the tip of the fixed finger 320 is positioned in theforward direction of Dy, in front of the tip of the movable finger 310,but this relationship may be reversed. That is, the tip end of themovable finger 310 may be positioned in the forward direction of Dy, infront of the tip end of the fixed finger 320. In this case, the robothand 302 may be inverted by the third robot arm 600 when grasping thebill bundle MT.

In another variation, of the configuration of FIG. 5C in which therubber sheet Sr of the movable finger 310 does not face the rubber sheetSr of the fixed finger 320, instead the rubber sheet Sr may be attachedto the inside of the claw portion 313 of the movable finger 310 and theinside of the protruding portion 324 of the fixed finger 320 such thatthe rubber sheet Sr of the movable finger 310 faces the rubber sheet Srof the fixed finger 320. In this case, the portion to which the rubbersheet Sr has been attached in the fixed finger 320 is extended to therear of the tip position Tm of the movable finger 310.

In another variation of the configuration of FIG. 5C, in which therubber sheet Sr is attached to both the claw portion 313 of the movablefinger 310 and the protruding portion 324 of the fixed finger 320,instead, the rubber sheet Sr may be attached to only one of the movablefinger 310 and the fixed finger 320.

In another variation of the configuration of FIG. 5C, in which therubber sheet Sr is attached to the inside of the claw portion 313 of themovable finger 310 and the inside of the protruding portion 324 of thefixed finger 320 as a slip prevention material, instead the insidesurface of one or both of the same portions may be subjected toroughening treatment or the like. Note that this fourth modification maybe applied to the second and third variations just described.

In another variation of the configuration of FIG. 5C, in which the fixedfinger 320 is fixed and only the movable finger 310 is movable, insteadthe fixed finger 320 may also be movable in the same manner as themovable finger 310.

In another variation of the configuration of FIG. 5C, in which the aircylinder mechanism is employed as the movable finger lifting mechanism330, instead, other known lifting mechanisms such as a rack and pinionmechanism, a ball screw mechanism, a motor cylinder mechanism, anelectric slider mechanism, a belt slider mechanism, and a linear slidermechanism may be employed as the movable finger lifting mechanism 330.In such a case, an electric motor may be employed as a driving source.

In any of the embodiments of the robot hand 302, the control device mayanalyze the front image of the bill storage container 400 captured bythe second robot arm imaging unit 350 to determine the position of thenotch Rs of the holding plate 411 and the position of the slit Rtbetween the support bases 412 a and 412 b, control the robot arm 200 andthe robot hand 302 to adjust the position of the movable finger 310,insert the tip portion of the movable finger 310 into the notch Rs ofthe holding plate 411, and insert the tip portion of the fixed finger320 into the slit Rt between the support bases 412 a and 412 b.

FIGS. 16A-16K show embodiments with additional and/or alternativeconfigurations for fixed finger(s) and movable finger(s) of the robothand 302.

FIG. 16A shows a variant embodiment of the robot hand 302 in which aprotruding portion 326 protruding upward may be provided at the tipportion of the protruding portion 324 of the fixed finger 320. Theprotruding portion 326 provided in such a manner allows the bill bundleMT to be hooked by the protruding portion 326 and to be pulled out thebill bundle MT in front of the bill storage container 400. In thisembodiment, in the movable finger 310, the upper surface is inclineddownward from the base end of the intermediate portion 312 to the tip ofthe claw portion 313 in the region from the base end of the intermediateportion 312 to the tip of the claw portion 313.

FIG. 16B shows a variant embodiment of the robot hand 302 shown in FIG.16A. In the embodiment of FIG. 16B the upper surface of the intermediateportion 312 may be a horizontal surface on the same plane as the uppersurface of the base portion 311. Forming the claw portion 313 of themovable finger 310 in such a shape allows for increasing the rigidity ofthe claw portion 313 of the movable finger 310. The lower surface of thefixed finger 320 is inclined upward from the intermediate position ofthe claw portion 323 toward the tip of the claw portion 323 in theregion from the intermediate position of the claw portion 323 to the tipof the claw portion 323.

FIG. 16C shows a variant embodiment of the robot hand 302 shown in FIG.16A. In this embodiment, the lower surface of the claw portion 323 maybe a horizontal surface on the same plane as the lower surface of thebase portion 321. Forming the claw portion 323 of the fixed finger 320in such a shape allows for increasing the rigidity of the claw portion323 of the fixed finger 320. This variant embodiment may be usedtogether with the variant embodiment shown in FIG. 16B. The protrudingportion 324 of the fixed finger 320 is, in this variant, an elongatedsubstantially rectangular thick plate portion having the same width asthe width of the claw portion 323.

FIG. 16D shows a variant embodiment of the robot hand 302 shown in FIG.16A. In this embodiment, the protruding portion 324 may have a shape inwhich the lower surface of the protruding portion 324 is inclined upwardfrom the base end of the protruding portion toward the tip of theprotruding portion 324. Forming the protruding portion 324 of the fixedfinger 320 in such a shape provides an alternative for inserting thefixed finger 320 into the bill storage container 400. In this variant,the notch Cv is provided in the claw portion 323 of the fixed finger320.

FIG. 16E shows a variant embodiment of the robot hand 302 shown in FIG.16A. In this embodiment, the notch Cv may extend to the base end of thebase portion 321. Extending the notch Cv in this manner providesrigidity of the fixed finger 320 and widens the contact area withrespect to the bill bundle MT. In the robot hand 302 according to thisvariant embodiment, the tip portion of the claw portion 313 of themovable finger 310 protrudes downward, and the tip portion of the clawportion 323 of the fixed finger 320 protrudes upward.

FIG. 16F shows a variant embodiment of the robot hand 302 shown in FIG.16A. In this embodiment, the lower surface of the claw portion 313 ofthe movable finger 310 may be a flat surface, and the upper surface ofthe tip portion of the claw portion 323 of the fixed finger 320 may be aflat surface.

In the variant embodiments of the robot hand 302 shown in FIGS. 5B, 11,and 16A-16F, each of the movable finger 310 and the fixed finger 320 iscomposed of one rod-shaped member. In the variant embodiments shown inFIGS. 16G-16K, either or both of the movable finger and the fixed fingermay be composed of two rod-shaped members. In this embodiment, thecontact area of the movable finger and the fixed finger with respect tothe bill bundle MT can be widened, thereby enhancing a probability offirmly grasping the bill bundle MT by the movable finger and the fixedfinger. Note that in FIGS. 16G-16K, the hatched portion indicates themovable finger, and the portion of the hatched portion plus thenon-hatched portion indicates the fixed finger; alternatively, theportion of the hatched portion plus the non-hatched portion may be themovable finger and the hatched portion may be the fixed finger. In thelatter case, the first variation described above may be used.

Other examples and implementations are within the scope and spirit ofthe disclosure and appended claims. For example, features implementingfunctions may also be physically located at various positions, includingbeing distributed such that portions of functions are implemented atdifferent physical locations. Also, as used herein, including in theclaims, “or” as used in a list of items prefaced by “at least one of”indicates a disjunctive list such that, for example, a list of “at leastone of A, B, or C” means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., Aand B and C). Further, the term “exemplary” does not mean that thedescribed example is preferred or better than other examples.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specificnomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the describedembodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatthe specific details are not required in order to practice the describedembodiments. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of the specificembodiments described herein are presented for purposes of illustrationand description. They are not targeted to be exhaustive or to limit theembodiments to the precise forms disclosed. It will be apparent to oneof ordinary skill in the art that many modifications and variations arepossible in view of the above teachings.

What is claimed is:
 1. An automatic bill handling system comprising: arobot arm configured to extract bills from a bill storage container inwhich the bills are stored; a bill conveying device configured to conveythe bills extracted by the robot arm, wherein: the robot arm conveys thebills extracted from the bill storage container to the bill conveyingdevice while maintaining a horizontal orientation of the bills extractedfrom the bill storage container; and wherein the bill conveying deviceincludes: a bill storage unit into which the bills extracted by therobot arm are to be inserted; and a rail configured to linearly slidethe bill storage unit in a direction away from the bill storagecontainer.
 2. The automatic bill handling system of claim 1, wherein therobot arm conveys the bills extracted from the bill storage container tothe bill conveying device while maintaining a posture of the bills whenextracted from the bill storage container.
 3. The automatic billhandling system of claim 2, wherein the bill conveying device conveysthe bills in the posture of the bills when extracted from the billstorage container.
 4. The automatic bill handling system of claim 2,further comprising an arranging mechanism configured to arrange thebills extracted by the robot arm in the bill conveying device afterconveyance of the bills.
 5. The automatic bill handling system of claim4, further comprising a mechanism configured to prevent the bills in thebill conveying device from being ejected from the bill conveying deviceduring conveying or at completion of conveying.
 6. An automatic billhandling system comprising: a robot arm configured to extract bills froma bill storage container in which the bills are stored; and a billconveying device configured to receive the extracted bills at a firstlocation via the robot arm and convey the bills to a second location,wherein: the robot arm transports the bills extracted from the billstorage container to the first location while maintaining a horizontalorientation of the bills; and wherein the bill conveying deviceincludes: a bill storage unit into which the bills extracted by therobot arm are to be inserted; and a rail configured to linearly slidethe bill storage unit in a direction away from the bill storagecontainer.
 7. The automatic bill handling system of claim 6, wherein therobot arm conveys the bills extracted from the bill storage container tothe bill conveying device while maintaining a posture of the bills whenextracted from the bill storage container.
 8. The automatic billhandling system of claim 7, wherein the bill conveying device conveysthe bills in the posture of the bills when extracted from the billstorage container.
 9. The automatic bill handling system of claim 7,further comprising an arranging mechanism configured to arrange thebills extracted by the robot arm in the bill conveying device afterconveyance of the bills.
 10. The automatic bill handling system of claim9, further comprising a mechanism configured to prevent the bills in thebill conveying device from being ejected from the bill conveying deviceduring conveying or at completion of conveying.
 11. An automatic billhandling system comprising: a robot arm configured to extract bills froma bill storage container in which the bills are stored; an image device;and a bill conveying device configured to convey the bills extracted bythe robot arm, wherein: the robot arm conveys the bills extracted fromthe bill storage container to the bill conveying device whilemaintaining a horizontal orientation of the bills extracted from thebill storage container and said image device is configured to capture animage of an internal space of the bill storage container to ensure nobills remain in the bill storage container.
 12. The automatic billhandling system of claim 11, wherein the robot arm conveys the billsextracted from the bill storage container to the bill conveying devicewhile maintaining a posture of the bills when extracted from the billstorage container.
 13. The automatic bill handling system of claim 12,wherein the bill conveying device conveys the bills in the posture ofthe bills when extracted from the bill storage container.
 14. Theautomatic bill handling system of claim 13, wherein the bill conveyingdevice includes: a bill storage unit into which the bills extracted bythe robot arm are to be inserted; and a rail configured to linearlyslide the bill storage unit in a direction away from the bill storagecontainer.
 15. The automatic bill handling system of claim 12, furthercomprising an arranging mechanism configured to arrange the billsextracted by the robot arm in the bill conveying device after conveyanceof the bills.
 16. The automatic bill handling system of claim 15,further comprising a mechanism configured to prevent the bills in thebill conveying device from being ejected from the bill conveying deviceduring conveying or at completion of conveying.